A Thousand Lifetimes
by Lizardphobia
Summary: Based in the 2017 movie universe. When faced with movie Jason and Kim's feelings for each other, OG Kim comes to realize that there may be more between her and OG Jason as well.


A/N: Prompted by fuckyeahjasonkimberly (dot tumblr dot com). Best blog for your Jason/Kimberly fix. Everyone needs to check it out.

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A whirlwind took her there. A whirlwind that was a kaleidoscope of swirling colors and blurry images that deposited her in an unceremonious heap on the thick branch of a tree where she swayed precariously as she tried to reclaim some of the balance being a gymnast bred into her.

She made out a cliff, a quarry, and the twinkling lights of some foreign small town spread out far below her and nearly shrieked as she realized that she was one wrong foothold away from death and hanging on a tree growing on a _ledge_ on the bona fide _cliff_.

Thoughts and curses and a barrage of sarcastic comments flooded her brain but died on her lips as she took in the couple in the inky darkness just a few feet below her.

"-small crap town can cause me such misery," the woman was saying.

"So let's go. Leave," the man replied, and his manner and way of speaking was so familiar, it reminded her unnervingly of someone she knew very well indeed.

It was the oddest thing, but an indescribable feeling flooded through her and Kimberly Ann Hart felt an affinity, a bond, a _link,_ with the brunette with the chin-length bob that she had never seen before in her life.

"Dont tempt me, because I would, you know," the woman said.

And Kimberly felt it, as strong as if they were her very own, the words and the conviction with which they were spoken by the brunette in front of her.

The blonde man with the blue, blue eyes glanced over at her and she could have sworn that the zing that went through her body was the exact same as the one that was going through the other woman's. For a moment she _was_ the other woman, and that self-same veiled blue-eyed gaze that held so many meanings and concealed so many emotions changed into a dark one; more well-known, dearer, and closer to her heart. She sucked in a breath as the image faded.

An explosion sounded and the scene changed and once again she found herself hanging outside a window of yet again another tree branch.

She recognized the couple on the other side of the window immediately. But what was more disconcerting was that she recognized the very room they were in, and she picked out a disturbing familiarity in the layout: the way the trophies and desk and bed and furniture was arranged. The couple on the bed was different, but yet the same, as memories of her and another man, darker, broader, and dearer to her took his place. She shook her head, listening as the brunette confided in the blonde man in a manner eerily similar to the way she did so many times before, in a world completely different from this one, but only with her very own darker man instead.

An unfamiliar tone played out from a device in the brunette's hand, and the scene faded and she found herself rudely yanked away and _wet._

She was a true ranger, and it didn't faze her, but she watched as the couple in the water before her share something so profound, so _intense_ it nearly took her breath away. Her hair was floating all around her in the murky water, but her eyes were wide, and she couldn't look away even if she tried. She understood now, that the emotions running through her were the same as the ones the other woman was experiencing. And that she and that woman were the _same_ , yet how and why, she did not yet know or had an answer for.

They cradled their fallen friend between them, the dusky woman and the blonde man, joined by grief and something more. She lost them as they fell through the water into an underground cave that she could not follow, and she nearly screamed with the frustration of losing that connection that she shared with the woman and felt with the man.

She struggled to follow them, but the shelf of water that broke so easily to admit them through, failed with her and a stream of bubbles escaped her mouth as she felt herself being pulled inexorably backwards. She fought it, fought the unyielding pull, wanting desperately to bask again in the feeling, the emotion, that ephemeral _something_ that existed between the two that she selfishly wanted for herself.

She opened her eyes and blackness existed all around her, and she panicked. She panicked because she needed that tie, that feeling, that overwhelming sense of togetherness and wholeness that came only when the other woman was with the other man for herself. She tossed around fitfully, fighting the darkness, clawing her way through to something; finding her way to the light.

She broke through like a blind woman thirsting for sight, and suddenly she was floating in the air before them, invisible, yet not, surrounded by a heat that she could not feel, but somehow understood that they could.

Her eyes grew wide; she saw the Zords, but not like anything she had ever seen them to be before. Sleeker, streamlined, foreign yet familiar, in shades of colors she knew like the back of her hand. _Rangers._

A wall of fire flared up before her, and she recoiled, recovered, and tried to swim through the thickness of the air to go to them, help them, save them.

Screams of the innocent and the dying filled the air around her and she floundered, looking left, right, all around and nearly losing herself in the feeling of impotence that she could do absolutely nothing to save them.

An abyss opened before her and before them. Five Zords, five heroes, five friends but only one love. She saw it clearly then, that thread of love that joined two of the five, so strong, so unbreakable, and she nearly wept with the injustice of it all. They fought it, all five of them did, fought it bravely, vowing to live and die by the other.

The end was near, and a well of regret flooded her. A regret and a longing and a yearning so intense, it brought her to her knees. She watched as her other self raised a hand to the burning glass of the cockpit of her Pterodactyl. She watched as her other man raise his hand to meet hers in return. A look was exchanged, and this time her tears fell free. She raised her own hand in return to meet _his_ , her own man, not this one, but yet the same.

She was suddenly one with the other woman, and the blue eyes belonging to the other man looked into hers and she cursed the glass separating them, the space between them, wanting only his arms, yet not _his_ arms. She loved him, she realized, this man that was not hers, and he loved her, this woman that was not her.

The heat surrounding her was very real then, and as sweat and tears mingled and she tasted them on lips that were not hers, she desperately, desperately wanted, needed to know who he was.

As if the Red Tyrannosaurus had not given it away yet, as if her own buried feelings and undeniable connection with his counterpart was not recognized yet, as if the knowledge that this was right and had always been right was not discovered yet.

The rift opened wide and these Rangers lost their battle, and as one they fell into the fiery pit of darkness.

Her mouth opened, her eyes locked with those as blue as the sky, and she screamed, one name, one person, one love, "Jason!"

She was rudely jerked back into a dimension that she did recognize, into arms she did know, and into eyes as familiar as her own.

"Jason," she breathed.

"Kimberly," he said, with barely concealed relief. "You disappeared off grid, I," he stopped awkwardly, clearing his throat, "I mean, _Tommy,_ has been going insane with worry."

She shook her head. Clutching on to his arm as he made to get up to get another man for her. "No."

He frowned trying to understand, wondering at this sudden change in her.

But the feelings and the images and the experiences were still fresh with her. The certainty, the _sureness_ of what was shared was undeniable. It had been there all along, what she had been searching for but had never found.

Never found, because she had been looking for it with the wrong man.

She saw now, the same look in dark eyes that had been so clear to her in blue ones. The same veiled feelings that had always been there, but he had tried so hard to hide.

"You love me," she said.

His eyes darkened, but he said not a word.

She nodded slowly, marvelling at the bubble of emotions welling up within her. " _You love me."_

He never lied, and would never lie to her. Conflict was in his eyes, but he gave a short nod. "I do."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm sorry it took me so long."

Confusion flickered in his dark gaze, and then faded as hope took over.

"It's you. It's always been you," she said softly, embracing it now, rejoicing at the flood of feelings, of _love_ that was rushing through her veins. She reached up and feathered her fingers across his lips. "You're him. And he's you."

He didn't understand, but he didn't need to, all he could see was all he had ever wanted from her shining back for him in her eyes.

"I know this now. It's always been you and me, Jase. Whether we lived and died a thousand lifetimes over, it'll still be us two."

 _Fin._


End file.
